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Just say No

Just say No is something people say when you do not want to do something. It is not always that easy especially for people pleasers. I used to be one of those people who just could not say No. When I was a young single Mom with two small children my life was very busy. Even then so called friends would ask me to babysit and I would do it even though I hated it.

They are sneaky

I remember how they got me into babysitting: Hey Amanda, I haven’t seen you for a while. What are you doing Friday evening? Stupid me then thought they wanted to spend time with me so my answer would be: Nothing really. I’ll probably watch a movie or something like that. It is then that they gave the final blow: Great! Then you won’t mind watching my children. We were invited to dinner. I’ll drop the kids of at 6. Thank you so much. I knew we could count on you. I would then spend my Friday evening looking after children while being exhausted from being a single parent – taking care of my own children, the house and work.

Amanda learned to say No

The story above happened over and over again until I read up on how to say No politely. I tried a couple of things – some worked sometimes while others didn’t work at all. Practice makes perfect they say. The one thing that worked every time so far is when I’m asked what I’m doing a certain day or evening I answer with a question. “Why do you ask?” Every time they would then come out with the whole story which gives me the opportunity to say: I won’t be able to help you out, sorry. No explanation why I can’t do it.

Just say No